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Hen harrier challenge to grouse moor managers
GROUSE moor managers in the North York Moors are being challenged by the RSPB to adopt techniques that could help to resolve the conflict between grouse shooting and hen harrier conservation.
The society has laid out a vision for tackling the long-running conflict – in which hen harriers have paid the ultimate price.
Hen harrier numbers have been kept low because of illegal killing and disturbance over decades, with problems particularly associated with areas where moors are managed for intensive driven grouse shooting.
Dr Pat Thompson, the RSPB’s uplands conservation officer, said: “Moorland managers and conservationists must work together to resolve this long-running conflict.
“Hen harriers are on the verge of extinction as a breeding species in England, and to lose such a magnificent bird because of continuing intolerance towards it would be a sad indictment of society’s ability to protect wildlife.
“The next step is for grouse moor managers to adopt techniques such as diversionary feeding more widely, and demonstrate that driven grouse moor management is compatible with bird of prey conservation. If this turns out to be impossible, then it may be time to consider other approaches to managing our uplands.”
Hen harriers eat red grouse chicks, voles and meadow pipits and on some sites high densities of hen harriers can lead to driven-grouse shooting becoming not economically viableThe RSPB is calling for management techniques, which reduce the impact of hen harriers on grouse numbers, to be trialled and encouraged by game managers.
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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